www southribble gov uk Spring 2009 FORWARD 9

www.southribble.gov.uk Spring 2009 FORWARD 9
Make sure
you’re up
to date on
the register
IT IS important to ensure
your details are up-to-
date on the electoral
Streets register.
If you have moved
ahead! home, are coming up to
18 or are just not on the
register, all you have to
LIVING with litter is not something do is complete a Voter
that Robert Cochrane from Registration Form.
Bamber Bridge is prepared to do. As well as ensuring
Keen to keep his neighbourhood you are available to vote
clean and tidy, Robert (pictured)
in the European and
spends every morning picking
up rubbish from the streets Lancashire County
around his house. Council elections on
Come rain or shine Robert, June 4, anyone looking
who lives independently with for credit or a new
help from support workers, can mobile phone contract
be found collecting takeaway should confirm their
cartons, cans and sweet details are correct, as
wrappers that have been companies now use the
dropped by litter louts. He told
register as a first point
FORWARD why he does it.
BELLY GOOD EXERCISE: Sana Virdi (right) and Cheryl Ward get into the swing of reference.
What’s your motivation for You can, ideally by
Dancing away the
picking up everyone else’s prior appointment,
rubbish? check the Electoral
It’s simple really. I care about my Register during normal
neighbourhood and I want it to office hours at the Civic
look tidy. Nobody wants to look Centre, in West Paddock,
out of their window and see a Leyland, or contact the
Arabian nights
rubbish tip. I feel much happier
knowing my neighbourhood
Democratic Services
looks clean and cared for. team, who will check
the register for you, on
What’s your routine? 01772 625278.
Every morning I head out at
around 7.30am and pick up all
the litter from St Mary’s Road
WOMEN have found a performance. My aunt Nuhad Syria, Jordan and the surrounding
cultural way of keeping fit in would join me with her graceful areas. She left Beirut when it was
and Aspden Street. Then I head
along Station Road to the Western Parishes. walk and flexible hips. My mother torn by civil war, and found herself
Somerfield and back down to An art form steeped in tradition sat watching on the doorstep with a in Lancashire.
my starting point. The council has brought both mental and smile on her face, and my “I spent my first days in England
has given me some gloves, a physical health benefits to grandmother always said ‘dance crying,” she said. “Everything was
high-visibility jacket and a litter participants in Walmer Bridge. with your heart and your body will so different. It was very cold and it
picker so I am well equipped for Traditional Arabic dancing, follow’.” rained all the time. I longed for the
the job. I have an agreement
known in Europe as “belly As a form of exercise, belly blue sky and the stars at night.
with the council that I can leave dancing can burn as many calories Feeling homesick, I would put my
my bags in a certain spot so
dancing”, was introduced to South
Ribble by Sana Virdi, who is as light jogging, swimming or Arabic music on and dance.”
they can pick them up. riding a bike. It led her to set up The
originally from Beirut, in Lebanon.
She said: “I have been dancing to It provides a good cardio- Phoenician Dancers, and she now
Is litter a big problem where vascular workout and helps leads classes throughout the area.
you live? Arabic music and singing Arabic
songs from the day I started to increase both flexibility and The group now takes part in
I’m close to Station Road which
walk and talk. It is part of the strength. Many styles emphasize performances, shows and
has lots of takeaways. People
often walk along the street culture and a way of life. muscular "isolations", teaching the charitable events, raising money for
eating their food and then just “My grandfather loved to smoke ability to move muscle groups Derian House and St Catherine’s
drop the packaging when they his nargileh (water pipe) and listen independently. Hospice.
have finished. We also get to his old Arabic songs. My A non-impact and non-weight- The Walmer Bridge group meets
drivers pulling into side streets or grandmother often joined him and bearing exercise, it is considered at the village hall every Thursday,
parking at the top on Station sang, clapped her hands and especially good for women, as it from 8pm until 9pm. If you would
Road to eat their takeaway food circled her wrists in the air. can reduce the risk of osteoporosis. like to get involved, or simply want
and then dumping their litter Sana was in a Lebanese dance to find out more about traditional
“She used to invite me to the
when they’re done. Some days I group when she was a student, Arabic dancing, call Sana on
collect as many as four bin bags centre of the courtyard for a full
performing all around Lebanon, 07837 219543.
full of rubbish.
What do you think of litter
louts?
looking back forward@southribble.gov.uk
They make me angry. I see
people dropping litter and it
makes me wonder what their
own homes must be like. They
Do you remember
should all be caught and made
to pay expensive fines. the roundhouse?
How do people react when PEEPING through the foliage in this old
they see you? photo is a remarkable roundhouse which
People often tell me I am doing
a good job, which is nice to stood on Sod Hall Meanygate at the point
hear. I have great neighbours where it crosses from the Longton Moss to
and they appreciate what I do. the Leyland Moss.
I’ve got a good relationship with
the council, and their cleansing
The Meanygate, which survives as a popular
teams tell me they’re grateful footpath, was the first direct route built over the
for my help. moss and the roundhouse may have been a point
where tolls were collected.
Do you ever have a day off? It was a timber, reed and thatch construction
Hardly ever! To be honest I enjoy that was built no later than the 1760s and
doing it. It’s my daily exercise
routine. survived until 1982.
The path today stands many feet above the
Do you know a community surrounding farmland, reflecting the great depth
hero or heroine whose of peat that has been cut for fuel and agricultural
efforts to take pride in their uses. The very latest research dates the onset of
local area, community or peat formation on the mosses of the Western
environment deserve a
mention in FORWARD? Call Parishes to about 3500BC.
Lisa Gillibrand on 01772 Do you have a snippet of South Ribble history to
625312 or email share? Call us on 01772 625312 or email
FORWARD@southribble.gov.uk forward@southribble.gov.uk